Do you have a why? Why do you want to do what you do? My why found me five years ago…

It was five years ago today, at the age of 24, I was sitting next to my mother as she lay on her deathbed dying of cancer and I watched as she took her last breath. As I sat there, staring blankly at her now soulless body, my mind was flooded with so many thoughts and emotions. Most importantly, at that moment, I truly realized just how short life can be and I now had a deep desire and a “why” to do something great with my life.

She is why I want to go after my dreams. She is why I want to inspire others to go after theirs and she is why I want to work to improve myself each and every day, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

The last words I spoke to my mother were “I promise I’ll make you proud.” At that time, I did not know how I was going to do that, and for the next few years following that day, I had a hard time finding a true passion that I could focus my energy on. I struggled with life; battling anxiety, depression, and a continuously frustrating inability to seemingly get going and a fear that I wouldn’t be able to live up to that promise that I had made.

However, after rediscovering my passion for golf and writing, and starting this blog in May of last year, it has given me the means to keep my promise to my mother. I can pursue my passions and dreams in life, but more importantly it has given me a platform to help and inspire others to realize theirs and do the same. In the end, if I don’t capture all my personal dreams in life, but my blogs succeed in helping others to reach their goals in their respective passions…then I know my mother would be proud.

I know a lot of you who follow my blog already have your own “why” for reaching your dreams. But if you don’t, I urge you to find one, and you don’t need a personal or family tragedy to find it. Your why can simple just be you, it doesn’t need to involve anybody other than yourself.

I’m reminded of a speech I heard Les Brown give where he talked about this idea, and it’s been a motivator for me as well. He said imagine if you will, being on your deathbed, and standing around your bed are the dreams given to you by life. The ideas that you never acted on…the talents, the gifts, the abilities that you never used, and there they are standing around your bed looking at you with large angry eyes saying “We came to you, and only you could have given us life, and now we must die with you forever.”

If you died this very moment, what would die with you? What dreams, what ideas, what talents, what greatness that you showed up to bring? Don’t allow the fear of failure or the attractiveness of playing it safe in life to draw you in. Life is short, start now on your dreams so in the end you’ll never have to ask yourself “what if?” What if I had thrown my whole self at my dreams?

So I ask again, what is your why? Why do you want to do what you do? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below, so please share!

I try to look back at the death of my mother in as much positive light as I can. She was a very special woman, and I’m grateful to have gotten 24 years with her. She gave me the gift of life not once, but twice. Once when she gave birth to me and once the day she died…